Look at me writing and posting this on the first of the month! I think that’s a mini-achievement in and of itself, given how I can procrastinate on non-work-related matters. I don’t really have much of a preamble this month so let’s dive into the bookish side of things.

July in Books

July turned out to be an unexpectedly good month for books because I read 18 of them! That’s actually high for me, but there were two big reasons:

1. I was sick for two days last month and did nothing but read while recovering
2. While I generally finish a book over the course of the work week (Mon to Fri), I can finish a very gripping book or two over the weekend.

The Six Stories series probably helped bump the number up a little, since I read the first four of the six books in the series in July! I’ll probably finish the series in August, making it one of the few things I read. I am really enjoying the books by the way – they are quite dark but also very prescient and I love the tinge of the supernatural.

Going back to the start of the month, I started the month by reading more Jane Austen and Austen-inspired books. Her juvenilia was fun, though the Lady Susan-inspired book was not.

July also had one bookish event: the Big Book Giveaway by the NLB (National Library Board)! It was also very crowded – I arrived at the library 20 minutes in advance thinking I’d have plenty of time but as it turns out, the queue was already insane. But I have to give the library props for organising the event well – they implemented time controls and brought out the books progressively so that no matter when you went into the event space, there would be books for you. I managed to get four books for myself, and a few more for my nieces and nephews!

July in Tea

July also turned out to be a pretty good month for tea, which I’m probably even more pleased about!

For one thing, my Chinese teas arrived so I’ve been drinking something that I’m not very used to. I’ve had Chinese white teas and puers but they’ve never been such a staple of my tea pantry like they are now! It’s quite a pleasant experience and I’m just wondering how I can turn all my notes on the teas into more knowledge about Chinese tea.

And rather excitingly, I had the opportunity of holding a tea workshop in July! My cousin-in-law was doing a fundraiser and he asked me if I could talk about tea, so I decided to talk about Japanese tea!! It wasn’t a huge affair, just about ten people but I had fun telling them about the history of Japanese tea, the chemistry of tea, and how to brew it. We ended with a tea-tasting session and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, so I’m really pleased!

Misc

Apparently third time’s the charm because we finally made it for a LOTR Magic The Gathering event!! This time, we turned ourselves into 1/1 human tokens and played an LOTR themed game using the booster packs – that was really fun! We also managed to get some limited-edition LOTR dice so yay for that too!

I also managed to make it for a baking class at the end of the month, but I somehow made it that I have another one coming up so I’m hoping I can combine the two events into one post for memory’s sake.

Here’s to another good reading and tea month for everyone!